Misunderstood
by misericordia98
Summary: Sasuke returns from a mission and has something to ask of Sakura. She's not sure she's ready to hear his request. /One-shot/


**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

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_A/N: So, I wanted to write some SS fluff and here's what I came up with. Enjoy!_

**Misunderstood **

The night was particularly dark, as heavy clouds hung over the village the whole day and it finally started to pour late in the evening. Sakura was in her nighty, sitting on the bed at the faint luminance of the reading-light and waited, and waited. His messages were always so short and always so indifferent, which grieved her grandly for he was anything but indifferent, but forced himself to be, in fear that the blood in his veins might betray him and destroy what his heart built and wished to shield from harm.

The blood that could not be cleaned out of its purpose or weaknesses. The blood of divine anger, the blood of sacred love. It seemed to her that he had years of wandering ahead, years of running away from her, ones that would damp down his ardor and hers as well. What kind of a plan was that? Her ardor would never die, as hard as he tried. As for his, she awaited, to see.

The weeks were an eternity to her and the thoughts that ran through her head sometimes caused her stomach pains and headaches that she ignored. She only needed to know if the time had succeeded in creating the layers of ice he so desired to mold around his heart. And if it had, then she'd be fine with it, she'd be fine with his choice because it will be clear and it will be his final one.

The rain knocked harshly on the window across her as her blurred gaze caught movement. The door opened and closed, but she couldn't quite drag her attention off the window. The rain was magnetizing her with its strange music. There was nothing chaotic about rain, even though it sounded like it to the one who paid no attention. The systematic chaos was alluring, but not strong enough to rip her from the mental and physical trial she prepared herself for during those long, long days.

His rejection would be short and to the point, she imagined, and he'd look her in the eye as he spoke. He insisted on looking her in the eye as he spoke. She sometimes wondered what his father was like with his mother. Was he anything like him?

"Sakura?"

She suddenly blinked, averting her gaze as if awoken from a dream. His intonation was stored with many things that she hasn't heard before. Things that stung her for there was a strange and unfamiliar tint of… weakness in his calling. Her body heaved up and shifted to the door, stopping at the threshold to a view that made her heart shrink.

"Sakura." His voice changed to a harsh demand as he faltered to the nearest wall and leaned on it to keep his balance, leaving a deformed imprint behind. "Sakura?" His bleeding eyes skimmed over the half-dark, half-light room absently as he raised his voice as if to reach her if she's on the other side of the house.

Standing aside like this… she's never done it before, used to always running to meet him, to touch him and obey his wishes. The urge to do the same was still in her, but something else stopped her now, she didn't know what. The most intimate and hidden part of her heart wanted to see what he'd do if she's not there.

He tried moving, with the help of the wall, but clearly, there were cuts on his hand so he gave up quickly, squinting at the pain and muttering something she couldn't hear. Her form leaned on the threshold, fighting the stubborn haze of her vision. In strange, crippled motions he reached the center of the room and stopped, turning to look at an indefinite right, where the front door was.

His sense of direction was damaged, she thought, but he appeared seconds away from breaking down and she wasn't sure why. He's been disorientated before, he's overused his eyes as well. Although never to the extent of complete blindness. Did the blindness upset him as much? There was more, she could feel it. A memory, perhaps? Memories had the power to befall and enfetter his mind like nothing else.

"I can't… see. I can't see." Sakura finally heard his murmur and the tears in her eyes streamed down her face. "I don't know where… I don't remember…my own home… stupid…"

Working with many of the noble clan of Hyuga granted her the knowledge of how their eye powers were exactly connected with their mind and she was grateful for it. However, treating Sasuke was a different matter entirely, since she never had a chance to make a comparison, but whatever Sasuke managed to give her as purely non-verbal information confounded her.

If a Byakugan had damaged someone's eyes, it was because there was an overuse of it and Byakugan was only used in battle. It was not that simple with Uchiha. It was never simple with Uchiha.

Sakura swallowed, coming off the door and stepped closer, the movement dragging his attention. His eyes went through her and searched desperately, but she was silent, busy admiring the interesting palette of emotions that flashed onto his tormented features at the sound of her. Sakura prepared for a blow, but there was none, at least not for now. Sasuke was soaked wet and ghastly pale, and his breaths were unsteady, almost loud. He was wired with tension, unsure and frightened, in equal doses, even though he'd never admit it. He was close to terrified and it scared her because she's never seen that on him.

Still, she refused to move further.

Sasuke renewed his attempt to move, but this time cautiously and slowly, as he spread his hand, to not clash into anything on his path. He was close now and came closer, without a stop. His presence was like a massive tide of rumpled darkness and heaviness that she could never mistake. No one else felt like that.

Sakura reached to catch his trembling hand before they clash and he took a sharp breath of surprise, recoiling.

"Sasuke, I am here. It's alright." She beckoned him and he obeyed, quicker than she expected, holding onto her hand as she dragged him to the light so that she could see better. Her chakra illuminated with the softest green against his temples and he shifted closer, by instinct. He was in pain, but she didn't know if it's physical alone. She hoped it was.

"What's wrong, dear?" Sakura asked softly, knowing that asking directly was her only shot of understanding. _If _he was in the mood.

The silence prolonged as he was intently scowling at a point in the air. She had hurt his dignity, it seems, with forcing him to rely on her entirely. It was wrong, but she wished he was blind like this more often, so she could be of help to him.

"Nothing. I've never been completely blind before, that's all."

Sakura smiled a little, glad that his voice has morphed into its original state of haughty puffed-upness. His body language spoke different though, he was leaning into her hand tiredly and Sakura had to pretend it didn't make her feel flutters in her stomach.

"You seemed very upset when you came in."

"I wasn't."

She wondered whether he had other injuries, ignoring his reply. His reason for being upset reminded her of her own. If they were one and the same, then she wasn't ready. Not at all.

Instead of asking, one of her hands roamed down his shirt and slid up to his back, applying slight pressure to check if he's hurt anywhere else, while the other was focused on his temple. The movements helped her distract herself from what was really bothering her. He did shudder once or twice, but there wasn't anything more serious than scratches and bruises.

Her hand stopped on the palm of his hand and took care of the cuts.

_Just don't say you'll leave because you love me, _flashed through her mind and a spasm coursed through her whole body.

_Say you hate me._

_Your hatred is easy, I bore it for years. _

The sound of the raindrops outside enhanced with the wind for a moment and then hushed again, and she was taken by surprise when her tired eyes searched for his and found them already looking down at her. Right at her. Maybe her technique helped him see silhouettes now. The bloody red and the dusky violet, steady and strained. The luminance contoured the paths of blood down his face and it made her furrow. Her left hand returned to his face and joined the other, but not before cleaning up the blood.

Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed.

"Your clothes are wet." Sakura reminded with a shaky whisper. It bothered her that he was so apart and so unwilling to touch her, after so many weeks. "I can save you from a wound, but not from a cold, you know."

His eyes opened as if to check whether she'd give him that usual smile of hers, but she didn't. The anticipation was denying it. His silent stare was unnerving her all the more and she ceased her technique, leaving emptiness between them.

"Thank you, I'm better."

She needed the truth and the silence was crushing her, but she couldn't bring herself to ask. To wrest answers from him. His words had a way of hurting her badly sometimes, that's why her favorite moments with him were in silence.

Sasuke backed away from her and she heard light sliding of fabric against skin, and assumed he has taken her advice. It was not unusual that their first conversations began on the day after he returned, he was almost always too tired for anything so she just returned to the bed, pulled the sheets and tucked herself under them, setting herself to listen to the rain.

Sasuke followed her under the sheets and it was quiet for a while. But not calm.

"Sakura, I… must ask something of you."

She was with her back to him, but couldn't help the sadness from taking over. Wiping her face with her sleeve quickly, she said to herself she had to be strong.

"Can I look at you when I speak?" His tone was not harsh but abated so she agreed on it, turning to face him.

"I-," Sakura uttered, in an attempt to delay his words, but he had shifted closer and pressed her body into a tight hug. _"Huh?!" _Warmth spread through her body and she was lost in bewilderment for a few seconds before she hugged him back, making assuring motions on his back. Her eyes closed and her limbs weaved around him. Then she smiled, glad that he still found consolation in her, whatever he's decided.

He was with the funny t-shirt she bought him on his last birthday and the only way he was not going to embarrass himself in front of people and directly tell her how awful it was, was wearing it when he slept. Convenient, she mused.

"Sasuke, what do you want from me?" She backed away, her inquiry a little more forced than she wished it to come out. "Why do you hug me like that?"

Sasuke was confused for one long moment, then leaned his forehead on hers.

"W-what are you doing?_" _Sakura couldn't take it anymore and her eyes glazed. "Are you leaving me, is that w-why you're so kind to me? You're leaving, aren't you? That was what you were gonna ask of me, to let you go-"

Sasuke gave her a strong pout of disapproval and put a hand on her mouth to stop her.

"I was going to ask you to come travel with me." He explained, his eyes watching her reaction carefully, then something must've crossed his mind because he looked away with a slight, odd blush on his usually cold features. "Because_…_ I can't go without…without your healing for long. I need your…"

Sakura was looking at him for a while, then her lips parted with astonishment. Her whole face darkened to coral as she averted her gaze to the window as well, thinking over his words. The relief was vast and fulfilling after his confession, her worries were in vain, thankfully, but this… was worrisome as well. His cryptic words and cryptic touching were a common thing, they always had various contexts. For the first time, she didn't trust herself with reading through them today. Could it be?

_It can't be. _

Sakura looked over at him, finding him glancing at her with a mixture of fright and painful anticipation. _Her healing? _She raised a brow. Is that how he saw it? The notion just set her ablaze. How refined of him. Noble clan indeed.

"You want Uchiha babies." Sakura blurted out her final deduction and watched him alter his state from frustration to complete shock and then switch to the defensive-aggressive vibe that made her bite her lip hard.

"I haven't said that." He refused to look at her, furrowing at the ceiling. "I haven't."

"Then what are you saying?" Sakura couldn't stop herself, especially as he was drowning in his own mess in such an adorable way.

"I am saying… I need you," He paused, ordering the right words in his mind again, "to come with me."

"So that you can impregnate me," Sakura added.

"Yes. No! I mean-" Sasuke looked at her, heavily flustered and she held his eyes, battling the laughter. Then she shifted closer to his face and he backed away with an angry pout. His Mangekyo was still on… he probably couldn't discard it yet so her hand reached up to his left temple and it up the shadows on his face with her chakra.

"You mean?"

"I mean, if you…" His words came out as a tired sigh, which made her chuckle quietly, "if you want to."

_"You know I've been dreaming about this since I was eight, right?!"_ Sakura's voice suddenly heightened an octave, but Sasuke grimaced, she wasn't sure whether it was her words or the shrill and wrong way she delivered them.

"You made it very clear to me, yes."

"Hey, watch your tone, mister endangered species," Sakura hissed. "No me, no sannin babies."

Her words lit Sasuke up in a strange way and he was fixed on her for a brief moment of wonder and surprise. Then they slowly light withered, leaving a hollow. She wondered whether she triggered this hollowness at _endangered species _or at the fact that the two of the three current sannins planned to have a child. She'd lie if she said she hasn't thought about this for days.

"I hope they're nothing like me."

"I hope they're just like you." Sakura leaned to kiss him, letting her green light flow on. She forgot to stop and Sasuke had to push her back a bit, to keep her from falling into a frenzy. Her mental state wasn't quite stable and couldn't really comprehend the news fully, but she was sure it would, in a day or two.

"Ok, that went well." He muttered, making her smile widely. "So you're fine with it?"

_"Are you kidding me?"_ Sakura puffed, heaving up to kiss his forehead happily. "Couldn't be happier. This is _the peak_ of happiness. Happiest happy moment of my happy life-"

"Sakura."

"Sorry, I'll shut up."

Her form shifted over him and started playing with his still wet hair. They relished on the sound of the rain as Sakura started scolding herself for being so paranoid. It was downright hilarious how far his offer was from her fears and how misunderstood the situation was.

Her fears took over sometimes and she had no control over them, it was shameful and it made her feel weak. She couldn't help it, her life was intertwined with Sasuke for as long as she could remember. Imagining life without him alarmed her deeply. Sakura wanted to tell him she's sorry for being so silly, but then again, it was who she was. She would never apologize for loving him as much.

But she did want to ask him about something else.

"Did something happen?" Sakura glanced at his eyes before averting back to his hair and the curls she created artificially. His gaze was fixed on her and it sent a shot of electricity down her spine. _Not now_, she thought, taking a breath. Her hormones were wild without any of his long stares anyway. "I mean, something bad? Because when you came in you seemed…"

"My brother fought me blind once." He said like he's planned to say it all along, but the perfect moment came after her question. "I never stood a chance. I never realized what he's been through either."

"I understand," Sakura whispered, looking at him. Then she added after a pause, "I wish I knew him the way you did."

"I'm glad you didn't. He was better than me at everything." Sasuke lifted his hand to tuck a lock of her loose hair behind her ear.

Sakura chuckled.

"Trust me, I would've fallen for you even if you had twelve brothers and twenty cousins."

Sasuke raised a brow.

"Why, because I am a prodigy?"

"No, because you're the most handsome man in the village," Sakura explained, matter-of-factly, and broke out in laughter at the sight of Sasuke's ultimate disappointment.

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_A/N: Thanks for reading, babes! Hope you liked it. I can't believe this one wasn't smuff lmao The next one is probably gonna be smuff though._


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